Betrayal at Stonehenge - 1000 B.C.
by
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Finally a priest appeared and spoke;
The sun peeks over the hill announcing dawn at summer solstice.
It's golden orange halo fused day's light with night's mist.
The full sun's light crowned the ancient heel stone.
Blinding brilliant beams of radiant white light fan in all directions.
Fleeting rainbows sparkle in diamond water drops around the perimeter.
Mortals can not look directly in the light.
Nor should they.
The sun is too powerful to see, as the sun is too omnipotent to understand.
Its warmth wed with watered earth sprouts stone like seeds into plants.
All plants and all mankind flourish in great abundance.
Summer solstice sun shines supreme the day it smiles on earth the longest.
Man worships his heavenly benefactor and stands in exaltation of its pristine beauty and benefactor are wed as One.
THE SINISTER DARKNESS
The beginning of a perfect summer day and a promising future was abruptly changed by a strange darkening in the sky. The morning light was fading and the day was becoming gloomy, as if storm clouds had gathered, but there were no clouds in sight. The sky became dull and gray where the worshipers were camped. Strangely, the sun was still shining in full brightness a hundred paces off to the left.
At first, the dullness was slight and no one noticed. They were busy preparing morning food for the last meal they would have together before they would part. Kim, the slave trader, noticed the dullness but simply shrugged his shoulders and gave the whole incident scant attention. He was more interested in the aroma of fried pigeon eggs cooking on a wood fire.
Jep was carefully reducing the fire from flames to bright cherry red coals for cooking. He was totally preoccupied with preparing a palatable breakfast of leftover mutton, wheat mush and,--Pro's favorite -- a hot drink prepared from crushed, roasted dandelion roots.
Slowly, but inexorably, more and more of the sun was disappearing from sight. The day became darker and cooler only where Pro's party was camped. Off to the right or left there was still daylight. A wall of blackness was approaching. It looked as if a huge black storm cloud were moving over the sun.
Finally, a curious and disturbed group of the faithful simply stopped all activity and stood in awe and dismay. The bear trainer stared at the sky with his mouth hung open. 'It's not a cloud, is it?' he said softly to no one in particular. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the sky again. 'It's not blurred eyes, and I'm not moon - struck.' He shook his head in disbelief. 'I've never seen anything like this before. Have you?'
'No, I haven't' Pro said. He stood still with his hands on his hips and looked up at the strange occurrence.
'It's, it's frightening.' Everyone was becoming alarmed.
'Great God of the Sun, what is it?' The bear trainer blurted out loud enough for everyone to hear. 'You!' He turned to Pro. 'You, you've turned silver. Your face, your hat all have a silver tint. Even your hair on your arms looks like fine strands of silver. The grass is gray and silver. Great God of the Sun, what is it!?'
Pro looked at the bear trainer's bear and its black fur was tinctured with a fringe of silver. A haunting feeling crept over Pro, for now this wild animal looked like a beast from the under world. The beast nervously paced back and forth, its tongue dangling from its mouth with silver tinted droplets of saliva dripping to the ground. Pro shivered, for the sight scared him and he quickly looked away.
A huge black disk was devouring the sun. As it moved to cover the sun it sucked light from the earth. There was no stopping it..
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About the Book
Stonehenge is just too fascinating to ignore. The word "Stonehenge" seems to ignite the imagination of people and arouse their curiosity. That is because the accomplishments of the valiant Stonehenge people is incredible. It is believed that 123 large blue colored stones were quarried, cut to specified rectangular shapes and transported from the Preseli Mountains in Wales. This is a distance of approximately 130 miles as the crow flies and 240 miles when rafting the stones at sea, navigating several rivers upstream and portaging from one river to another. Eighty-two stone uprights weighing up to seven tons and forty-one top stones weighing slightly less were transported. Such an enormous undertaking seems like an impossible task for illiterate prehistoric people, but they did. The stones are there to prove it. Approximately 1000 years later, even greater construction had begun. The five towering rectangular trilithons stones (or archways) arranged in the shape of a horseshoe and facing the direction of the summer solstice, were built. At least 56 other huge stones were brought to Stonehenge probably from Marlborough Downs over 20 miles away. The largest stone weighed 55 tons and the average weighed 26 tons. It is difficult to imagine how stones of such bulk could be cut to size and transported before the practical use of the wheel, modern roads, hydraulic machinery, wire or nylon rope, etc. Moreover, the horses of that time were small, more like the modern Exmore pony, and were not used as a beast of burden. Once the stones were transported, they had to be positioned to allow for twelve perfect astronomical alignments, and the heavy lintels had to be raised to the tops of the pillars presumably by backbreaking human labor. So who were these amazing people who built Stonehenge? How did they do it, and why? Betrayal at Stonehenge-1000 BC breaths life into the people, put flesh and blood on their skeletal remains and creates saints and sinners. It takes place at the mysterious fall of Stonehenge, around 1000 B.C. Murder, lust, loyalty and love are combined with summer solstice and eclipse of the sun and their mystical religious settings. The genre is late bronze age but the setting is definitely STONEHENGE.
About the Author
I first visited Stonehenge in 1986 and was disappointed. I commented to my wife at the time that Stonehenge is just a pile of rocks. The clerk at the tourist desk overheard me and gave me some literature to read. Since then, I have read practically everything of value on the subject and have found that Stonehenge is a truly fascinating subject. I decided to write and bring life to these wonderful prehistoric people who accomplished so much with so little.
Betrayal at Stonehenge-1000 B.C. takes place at the fall of the Stonehenge epic. The characters in the story are farmers/food producers, and they have a paranoid shaman bound to a strict ritualistic religion. There is a famine, a murder, some love and some loyalty. This is the first of several novels I want to write with Stonehenge as the setting. The book has appeal for the murder mystery fan, the science fiction enthusiast, the religious reader, and those who simply have an intelligent curiosity about the mysteries of Stonehenge.
I am a retired investment banker and live in Shaker Heights, Ohio, with my wife and family nearby.